After winning a Big East regular-season title for the first time since 2013, Marquette continued the crown of a conference tournament on Saturday with a 65-51 win over No. 2-seeded Xavier. The win marks the Golden Eagles’ first league tournament title since 1997, when the program was a member of Conference USA.
Marquette needed overtime to beat St. John’s in the quarterfinals and played another thriller against UConn in Friday’s semifinals, but the Golden Eagles dominated the Musketeers from start to finish. After less than eight minutes, Marquette led 21-4 and increased the lead to 27 at one point in the second half.
Xavier reduced the deficit to 61-46 with less than four minutes to play and forced a Marquette time-out, but the Musketeers had neither the time nor the firepower to create late drama. Tyler Kolek led Marquette by 20 points and the Golden Eagles limited Xavier to just 34.4% shooting while forcing 13 turnovers. Conversely, Marquette turned the ball around just four times, denying Xavier opportunities to build momentum and pick up the pace in the second half.
2023 Big East Tournament Results
First Round – Wednesday March 8th
Game 1: No. 8 St. John’s 76, No. 9 Butler 63 | recap
Game 2: #10 DePaul 66, #7 Seton Hall 65 | recap
Game 3: #6 Villanova 80, #11 Georgetown 48 | recap
Quarterfinals – Thursday 9th
Game 4: #1 Marquette 72, #8 St. John’s 70 (OT) | recap
Game 5: #4 UConn 73, #5 Providence 66 | recap
Game 6: #2 Xavier 89, #10 DePaul 84 | recap
Game 7: No.3 Creighton 87, No.6 Villanova 7 | recap
Semifinals – Friday 10th March
Game 8: #1 Marquette 70, #4 UConn 68 – recap
Game 9: #2 Xavier 82, #3 Creighton 60 – recap
Big East Tournament Championship Game – Saturday, March 11th
Game 10: #1 Marquette 65, #2 Xavier 51 | recap